Objectives

The scientific goal of this collaboration is to merge our common interests in locomotor navigation to study complex social navigation involving multiple pedestrians using an innovative, versatile immersive platform, based on the interdisciplinary (engineering, kinesiology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, physiatry, psychology) expertise of the teams. This scientific goal will be carried out over three main objectives noted below.

1. Create and evaluate an immersive experimental platform to be used for the study of social navigation in complex social environments

The Cirris team is developing an immersive platform for overground locomotor navigation called the Large Over Ground Virtual suit (LogVS). The INRIA team has developed innovative interactive crowd simulations for VR using UMANS. The first step to carrying out this collaboration will be to merge these systems to allow a versatile VR tool for the proposed projects of objectives 2 and 3. Once merged, we will then enhance and evaluate virtual content and simulated behavior of the agents populating the immersive environment, both considering their trajectories, body motion animation and expressiveness. Ultimately, we would like to make the resulting code accessible (through GitLab) to other research sites interested in providing further technical developments, with the agreement that their developments will also be openly shared. We will also make executable versions available to other researchers who are interested in just using the platform for their own experiments or to clinicians interested in using it to train mobility in more complex immersive environments involving pedestrian interactions.

2. Study and model how environmental and personal factors affect the control of navigation in complex social environments in healthy populations

Specific experimental protocols will be used to manipulate crowd density to study how one switches from single pedestrian avoidance to path wayfinding, and differences due to aging and one’s level of physical activity. In addition, we will study how the density of a crowd, as well as their emotional expression affect the trade-off between planning and reactive strategies expressed in the timing of path deviations and personal space creation. In addition to crowd density, other independent variables will include temporal pressure (i.e., time constrained movements), as well as the social environmental context (visiting a museum, walking in a street). 

3. Study and model how neurological deficits  affect the control of navigation in complex social environments

There are many personal factors that need to be explored, particularly to better inform rehabilitation in relation to co-morbid factors following neurological lesions to the brain or spinal cord. We will focus on factors of severity of neurological deficit (Stroke/TBI, SCI) related to the varied effects on general mobility and social cognition. Mode of transport related to biped or wheelchair locomotion will be determined by the population (i.e., biped for brain injury and wheelchair for SCI). Wheelchair research will be divided into studies with manual and power wheelchairs. However, similar virtual protocols will be used for both modes of transport.